Sunday, May 31, 2015

Betsy Palmer, the veteran character
actress who achieved lasting, though not necessarily sought-after, fame as the
murderous camp cook in the cheesy horror film "Friday the 13th," has
died at age 88.

Palmer died Friday of natural causes at a hospice care
center in Connecticut, her longtime manager, Brad Lemack, told The Associated
Press on Sunday.

Palmer had appeared in films, on Broadway and in TV shows
for decades before she took the role of Mrs. Voorhees in the campy 1980 movie
in which young camp counselors suddenly begin meeting their bloody demise. The
back story was that she was the mother of Jason Voorhees, who had died at the
camp years before. He would come to life in several sequels that Palmer passed
on.

She would say in later years that she only took the role
in that first film because she wanted the money to buy a new car.

Palmer had appeared in numerous TV shows dating to the
early 1950s Golden Age of Television. Among them were such classic dramas as
"Kraft Theatre," ''Playhouse 90" and "Studio One."

Her film credits included "Mr. Roberts" with
Henry Fonda, "The Long Gray Line" with Tyrone Power and Maureen
O'Hara, "Queen Bee" with Joan Crawford, and "The Tin Star"
with Fonda and Anthony Perkins.

Other TV credits included "Knot's Landing,"
''The Love Boat," ''Newhart," ''Just Shoot Me" and "Murder,
She Wrote." She also appeared in several Broadway plays, including
"Same Time, Next Year" and "Cactus Flower."

Tributes have been paid to Oscar-winning British costume
designer Julie Harris, who has died at the age of 94.

Ms Harris designed clothes worn by The Beatles in the
films A Hard Day's Night and Help! and by Roger Moore in the James Bond film
Live and Let Die.

She died yesterday at the Chelsea and Westminster
Hospital in London after a brief illness from a chest infection, her close
friend Jo Botting confirmed.

Ms Botting, senior curator at the British Film Institute
National Archive, said: "In a career that embraced more than 80 films and
television productions, as well as several stage plays, Julie worked with some
of the greatest international stars in the history of the cinema, and for some
of its most legendary directors and producers.

"Her outstanding work was constantly nominated for
awards. She was an amazing woman."

Ms Harris, of Kensington, west London, won the Academy
Award for her "Swingin' London" designs in the 1965 film, Darling,
starring Julie Christie and Dirk Bogarde.

She was also awarded the Bafta for best costume design in
1967 for the film The Wrong Box, starring Michael Caine.

In 1965, after working with the Beatles, she said:
"I must be one of the few people who can claim they have seen John, Paul,
George and Ringo naked."

Ms Harris also designed costumes for the 1967 film Casino
Royale starring David Niven and Peter Sellers, Goodbye Mr Chips (1969), Dracula
(1979) starring Laurence Olivier and for the Muppets in The Great Muppet Caper
(1981).

Ms Harris, who never married or had children, retired at
the age of 70. She is survived by her god-daughter, Serena Dilnot.

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Cummings, William C. (Bill) William C. Cummings (Bill) of
Mesa AZ, passed away on May 28th. Born January 31, 1933 in Inglewood, CA to
Arthur and Mae Cummings. Survived by Wife Audrey Cummings, Children William
Cummings, Traci Vargas, Cindi Heazlit and Stan Gollihue, Grandchildren
Christopher Cummings, Adam Misner and Jenna Linh. William (Little Billy) was a
child actor with Republic Pictures appearing in 36 movies. He was one of the
Little Rascals and co-starred with Lloyd Nolan in Circumstantial Evidence
(1945). He served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. His career in the
Aerospace Industry spanned over 50 years and he was retired from Boeing. He
will be missed by his family, many friends and loved ones. No services are
planned at this time.

Friday, May 29, 2015

Lillian Michuda Fessenden, age 98, of Miami Florida,
formerly of St. Charles. Died Monday, May 25, 2015 at her home. She was born
June 2, 1916 in Chicago, IL. She passed away just shy of her 99th birthday. She
lived a very interesting life as an actress, her stage name was Lillian
Cornell. Also a singer, artist, wife, mother and grandmother. She is survived
by her three children, three grandchildren. and her sister Anne Michuda She was
preceded in death by her husband, Ace C. Fessenden. Visitation will be held
Saturday from 2:00 P.M. to 3:30 P.M. followed by the funeral service at 3:30 at
Yurs Funeral Home St. Charles. Burial will be private. To leave an online
condolence for the family, visit the funeral homes obituary page at
www.yursfuneralhomes.com. For more information, please call Yurs Funeral Home
of St. Charles, 630-584-0060 or like us on Facebook.

Wally Cassell, a film-noir favorite who played Cotton
Valletti, one of Jimmy Cagney’s gang, in the electric 1949 crime thriller White
Heat, has died. He was 103.

Cassell died peacefully April 2 at his home in Palm
Desert, Calif., his wife, actress, singer and songwriter Marcy McGuire, told
The Hollywood Reporter. He was in good health until recently, she noted.

“He was the most wonderful man,” McGuire said. “We never
had an argument.”

Mickey Rooney served as the best man at their 1947
wedding, and he gave Cassell — who was born Oswaldo Castellano in Sicily — his
more marquee-friendly moniker.

Cassell stood out in such film-noir movies as Cornell
Woolrich’s The Guilty (1947); Quicksand (1950), which starred Rooney and Peter
Lorre; the crime-doesn’t-pay drama Highway 301 (1950), opposite Steve Cochran;
Breakdown (1952), a boxing saga with Ann Richards and Sheldon Leonard; and City
That Never Sleeps (1953), starring Gig Young.

Cassell also played a jockey opposite Rooney in National
Velvet (1944) and held the rank of private in the war tales Story of G.I. Joe
(1945) and John Wayne’s Sands of Iwo Jima (1949).

In his final onscreen appearance, Cassell played L.A.
Dodgers front-office executive Buzzie Bavasi in a 1963 episode of The Beverly
Hillbillies.

In the Warner Bros. classic White Heat, Cagney’s ruthless
killer Cody Jarrett orders Cassell’s character to polish off fellow gangster
Zuckie Hommell (Ford Rainey), who is badly scalded during a train robbery and
left behind. Cotton, though, can’t bring himself to do it, and evidence left at
the scene links the bad guys to the crime.

In addition to National Velvet, Cassell worked with his
pal Rooney in such films as Thousands Cheer (1943) and Killer McCoy (1947).

Cassell started his movie career with a contract with MGM
and made his debut in Fingers at the Window (1942), starring Basil Rathbone.

He was rather busy after that, seen in small roles in
Presenting Lily Mars (1943), Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Anchors Aweigh
(1945), The Thin Man Goes Home (1945), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
and Homecoming (1948).

McGuire, a perky RKO contract player from Iowa, starred
in such films as Higher and Higher (1943), Frank Sinatra’s first acting effort,
and Sing Your Way Home (1945).

She and Cassell returned the favor as Rooney’s maid of
honor and best man at his 1949 wedding to actress Martha Vickers, the third of
Rooney’s eight wives.

“Mickey couldn’t understand how we were married so long,”
the red-haired McGuire recalled. “He said, ‘It must be the red hair!’”

In addition to his wife, Cassell’s survivors include
children Michael and Cindy, grandsons Ian, Chris and Austin and great-granddaughter
Annabella.

About Me

Born in Toledo, Ohio in 1946 I have a BA degree in American History from Cal St. Northridge. I've been researching the American West and western films since the early 1980s and visiting filming sites in Spain and the U.S.A. Elected a member of the Spaghetti Western Hall of Fame 2010.